No doubt it is all far, far too soon to start speculating on who will be the next BBC director general. But with Patten saying at the Oxford Media Convention that he expects Mark Thompson to leave before he does in 2015, perhaps the jockeying will begin. Or rather the hiding. Tim Davie, the normally garrulous head of BBC Radio, looked like he would rather fly across the room rather than answer a question on what Patten's decision to appoint headhunters Egon Zehnder meant. George Entwistle, the BBC Vision boss, meanwhile rushed out of the conference room leaving hacks no opportunity to ask him a question. Perhaps it is the job that nobody can admit they want.